I fell for it the first time I read the column linked from the OP, and I am embarrassed to admit it. I was just glancing at it while practicing boring muscle memory exercises on my horn before going to real music. On a second reading I could see how the author had interspersed his inferences from other sources, apparently dubious ones, with direct quotes from the Virginia and Massachusetts teams without clearly separating them. Shamefully shoddy writing if you ask me, which of course he did not.